Announcements:

Wednesday, May 12:

Final class grades are posted under the grades link. Please check that your grade is correct. Let me know ASAP if you believe there is a mistake. I will be submitting official semester grades tomorrow. I wish you all a nice summer.

Monday, May 3:

Class grades before the final exam are posted under the grades link. A brief explanation of how the grades were computed is given at the bottom of the grades page. If you understand your grade and are not interested in taking the final exam and do not wish to pick up any graded material, then you do not need to come to class tomorrow. If you have any questions about the grading or want to hear about the final exam, then you should come to class tomorrow. It would be a good idea to bring copies of your first two exams to class with you as they will be helpful in preparing for the final exam. If you have specific questions about the material covered in any of the three exams, tomorrow would be a good time to ask them in class.

Thursday, April 22:

Last year's exam 3 and some additional sample questions on the seasons, controls of climate, and optical phenomena that were not covered last year are now available under the old exams link.

Wednesday, April 14:

The last homework assignment #5 is posted under the homework link. It is due in class in one week, April 22. I will discuss the assignment in class tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 7:

Grades for exam 2 are posted. I also added a column labeled "Class Ave", which is meant to give you some idea as to where you stand in the class. Class average was determined by giving equal weight to exam1, exam2, term paper, and homework average, where homework average is total homework points divided by 210. Keep in mind that your class average will change after homeworks 4 and 5 and exam 3 are included. At the end of the semester, class average will be used to determine letter grades. There will be a curve, but I do not know what it will be. To give you a rough idea of where you stand grade-wise, if I had to assign a curve now, it would be something like A(88), B(75), C(62), D(50). This is only to be used as a guide. The final curve will likely be different than this.

Tuesday, March 29:

Grades for the term paper are posted under the Grades Link. You may pick up your graded papers after the exam on Thursday.

Tuesday, March 29:

Solutions for Homework #4 are posted under the homework link.

Thursday, March 4:

Homework #4 is posted under the homework link. We have already covered the material required to complete the homework. Although it is not due until the Thursday after spring break (March 25), I suggest that you start early so that you can get help if necessary.

Tuesday, February 16:

Solutions to homework #3 are available under the Homework link.

Monday, February 15:

Tomorrow's class will be a review for exam 1. During the review I will go over the answers to appropriate questions from last year's exams, which can be found under the OLD EXAMS link. I suggest that you study or at least look over the material BEFORE coming to class tomorrow. This will help you get more from the review. In addition, you should come prepared to ask questions about material that you may be having trouble understanding. Beside last year's exams, I also placed a link that provides you with a topic outline for the questions on this year's exam under the OLD EXAMS link.

Wednesday, February 3:

Homework #3 is available via the homework link. Paper copies of the assignment will NOT be distributed to the class. We have covered the material necessary to answer questions 1 and 2. We will cover the material necessary to complete the remaining questions by the end of next week. The assignment is due on February 16.

Wednesday, January 27:

Homework #2 is available via the homework link. Please read over the assignment. I will talk about it in class tomorrow. Paper copies of the assignment and 500 mb maps will NOT be distributed to the class. If necessary, you will have to print them yourselves.

Monday, January 25:

Grades for homework #1 are posted under the Grades link. Please check that you can find your selected Class ID. If you forgot your ID, send me an email and I will let you know what you selected. Note there are 10 students registered for the class who have not submitted homework 1 (still 8 as of Jan 26). Please do this ASAP. There is also one student with Class ID "Jslice" who submitted homework 1 and is not registered for the course.

Thursday, January 14:

Welcome to Atmospheric Sciences 336. Please periodically check this area for class announcements.

Course Objectives:

This course examines basic weather phenomena, climate variability and climate change, and their associated effects on people. The possibility and implications of human-caused changes in the climate system are also discussed.

Web page:

http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/students/courselinks/spring10/atmo336/home.html

Course Hours/Location:

Tuesday, Thursday   9:30 - 10:45  
Integrated Learning Center (ILC), Room 150.

Instructor:

Dr. Dale Ward, Lecturer / Research Scientist
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
Email: ward@atmo.arizona.edu (Best way to contact me)
Office: Physics and Atmospheric Sciences (PAS) Building, Room 566D.
Office Hours: Monday 12:00 - 1:00 and Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00 (after class) or by appointment.
Phone: 626-7261 (NOT best way to contact me)

Teaching Assistant:

Genevieve Valliere-Kelley
Email: gvalliere@atmo.arizona.edu
Office: Physics and Atmospheric Sciences (PAS) Building, Room 526
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 12:45 - 2:00 or by appointment.

Class Notes / Important Dates:

There is no textbook for this course. Lectures will be based on the Lecture Pages available from the class web page and additional material that will be distributed during lectrues throughout the semester.

Important dates, such as homework deadlines, exam dates, etc., will be posted in the class calendar.

Grading:

Homework:

Homework assignments will be given periodically during the semester. These will consist of short written papers and brief problem sets. The sum total of all homework accounts for 20% of your final grade. Individual homework assignments may not be weighted equally in determining your overall class homework grade. Expect about four homeworks to be assigned during the semester (not including the simple homework #1, which is due after the first week of class).

Your homework assignments will be graded on the quality and clarity of your English as well as their content. No cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty, or plagiarism will be tolerated (see University of Arizona Code of Academic Integrity).

All homework assignments will be available on the class web page. Homework assignments turned in late will incur a grade reduction of 10% per day.

Term Paper:

A term paper on the subject of the United States adopting a carbon cap and trade policy will be required for each student. Information about the paper is available under the homework link . I will discuss the term paper in class on Thursday, January 21. Please read over the assignment sometime before coming to class on January 21.

The term paper will account for 20% of your final class grade. It is due on March 4, which is approximately the midway point in the semester. I strongly suggest that you begin to work on your paper long before the due date. The paper accounts for a significant portion of your final grade.

Exams:

There will be 3 in-class exams and a final exam. Exam grades account for 60% of your final grade. Each in-class exam will account for 20% of your final grade. The exams will consist of a mixture of multiple choice and short answer questions. The in-class exams are not comprehensive in that the questions concentrate on material covered since the last exam. However, it is expected that you are familiar with some of the basic concepts covered early in the semester.

Questions from previous exams will be made available on the class web pages.

Final exam is Tuesday, May 11 from 8:00 - 10:00 in the regular classroom, ILC 150.

Exam Policy:

You are expected to study and understand material covered in class during lecture as well as to read the relevant material from the class notes. Exam questions will be taken from both the in-class lectures and the reading material included in the class web pages.

Please contact the instructor (preferrably via e-mail) as soon as possible if for an unexpected reason you are unable to be in class for an exam. A make-up exam will be arranged with sufficient proof. No make-up exam will be given unless you notify the instructor BEFORE missing the exam in class. In general, I would prefer make-up exams to be taken before the exam is given in class.

Grade Scale:

Your final grade will be curved and therefore depends on everybody else's grades. However, the grade scale will not be any more difficult than A(90%); B(80%); C(70%); D(60%).